Deppner last name popularity, history, and meaning

Find out how popular the last name Deppner is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Deppner.

Meaning of Deppner

A surname derived from German meaning a flat-bottomed boat or ferry.

Deppner, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Deppner surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Deppner in America

Deppner is the 151532nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Deppner surname appeared 108 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Deppner.

We can also compare 2010 data for Deppner to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 151532 140756 7.37%
Count 108 109 -0.92%
Proportion per 100k 0.04 0.04 0.00%

The history of the last name Deppner

The surname Deppner is of German origin, and it is believed to have originated in the 16th century in the region of Bavaria. The name is derived from the German word "Deppen," which means "simpleton" or "fool." This suggests that the name may have been given as a nickname or descriptive name to someone who was perceived as foolish or simple-minded.

The earliest recorded instances of the Deppner surname can be found in various German church records and municipal archives from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Hans Deppner, who was born in the town of Augsburg, Bavaria, in 1587.

In the 18th century, the Deppner surname appeared in various documents from the regions of Franconia and Swabia, indicating that the name had spread beyond its original Bavarian roots. One notable bearer of the name during this time was Johann Georg Deppner, a Protestant pastor born in Nuremberg in 1732.

As the Deppner family continued to grow and spread across Germany, some members of the family adopted variations of the spelling, such as Depner or Deppener. These variations were likely due to regional dialects or scribal errors in record-keeping.

In the 19th century, the Deppner surname gained further recognition with the birth of Karl Deppner, a German painter and lithographer born in Munich in 1825. Another prominent figure with this surname was Otto Deppner, a German jurist and politician born in Wiesbaden in 1862.

Other notable individuals with the Deppner surname include:

  1. Ernst Deppner (1878-1942), a German architect and urban planner.
  2. Wilhelm Deppner (1888-1957), a German writer and journalist.
  3. Hildegard Deppner (1900-1985), a German operatic soprano.
  4. Heinz Deppner (1921-2006), a German actor and film director.
  5. Gabriele Deppner (born 1956), a German operatic soprano.

While the Deppner surname is not extremely common, it has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various professions and walks of life throughout Germany's past.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Deppner

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Deppner.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

  1. White only
  2. Black only
  3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
  4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
  5. Hispanic
  6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Deppner was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 87.96% 95
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races (S)% (S)
Hispanic Origin 6.48% 7

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Deppner has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 87.96% 84.40% 4.13%
Black 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% 4.59% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% 4.59% (S)%
Hispanic 6.48% (S)% (S)%

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Deppner was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Deppner, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

"Deppner last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on July 7, 2025. http://namecensus.com/last-names/deppner-surname-popularity/.

"Deppner last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/deppner-surname-popularity/. Accessed 7 July, 2025

Deppner last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/deppner-surname-popularity/.

Search for a name

Search for a first or last name to learn more about its origin, meaning, and more.

Simple as that.